Sec. 6.  Character of the Zend Avesta.

A few passages, taken from different parts of the Zend Avesta, will best illustrate these tendencies, and show how unlike it is, in its whole spirit, to its sister, the Vedic liturgy.  Twin children of the old Aryan stock, they must have struggled together like Esau and Jacob, before they were born.  In such cases we see how superficial is the philosophy which, beginning with synthesis instead of analysis, declares the unity of all religions before it has seen their differences.  There is indeed, what Cudworth has called “the symphony of all religions,” but it cannot be demonstrated by the easy process of gathering a few similar texts from Confucius, the Vedas, and the Gospels, and then announcing that they all teach the same thing.  We must first find the specific idea of each, and we may then be able to show how each of these may take its place in the harmonious working of universal religion.

If, in taking up the Zend Avesta, we expect to find a system of theology or philosophy, we shall be disappointed.  It is a liturgy,—­a collection of hymns, prayers, invocations, thanksgivings.  It contains prayers to a multitude of deities, among whom Ormazd is always counted supreme, and the rest only his servants.

“I worship and adore,” says Zarathustra (Zoroaster), “the Creator of all things, Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd), full of light!  I worship the Amesha-cpentas (Amshaspands, the seven archangels, or protecting spirits)!  I worship the body of the primal Bull, the soul of the Bull!  I invoke thee, O Fire, thou son of Ormazd, most rapid of the Immortals!  I invoke Mithra, the lofty, the immortal, the pure, the sun, the ruler, the quick Horse, the eye of Ormazd!  I invoke the holy Sraosha, gifted with holiness, and Racncu (spirit of justice), and Arstat (spirit of truth)!  I invoke the Fravashi of good men, the Fravashi of Ormazd, the Fravashi of my own soul!  I praise the good men and women of the whole world of purity!  I praise the Haoma, health-bringing, golden, with moist stalks.  I praise Sraosha, whom four horses carry, spotless, bright-shining, swifter than the storms, who, without sleeping, protects the world in the darkness.”

The following passages are from the oldest part of the Avesta, the Gathas:—­

   “Good is the thought, good the speech, good the work of the pure
   Zarathustra.”

   “I desire by my prayer with uplifted hands this joy,—­the pure works of
   the Holy Spirit, Mazda,.... a disposition to perform good actions,....
   and pure gifts for both worlds, the bodily and spiritual.”

“I have intrusted my soul to Heaven.....and I will teach what is pure
so long as I can.”

   “I keep forever purity and good-mindedness.  Teach thou me, Ahura-Mazda,
   out of thyself; from heaven, by thy mouth, whereby the world first
   arose.”